The Stratford on Avon Butterfly Farm has a few tropical insects which aren’t butterflies: fire ants and some stick insects. But these are housed in vivariums, alongside axolotls, toads and a few snakes.
This was on the ground of the main hothouse, possibly a tropical cockroach of some kind which had hitched along for the ride.
UPDATE: on iNaturalist, drtimk IDs this as being a giant burrowing cockroach, native to the tropical zone in Australia.
A brief clip of the artificial stream in the Stratford on Avon Butterfly Farm. It feeds a large pool, heaving with koi carp.
More of the tropical butterflies at the Stratford on Avon Butterfly Farm. We went in just after they had opened for the day, when the hothouse was still warming up. So many of the insects were cooperating with having their pictures taken by resting on leaves or feeding at the food stations.
A very brief video clip of one of the Christmas lights displays at Stratford on Avon this year: a swan, formed from LEDs, atop a fountain also composed of LEDs.
The vegetation in the hothouse at the Stratforn on Avon Butterfly Farm is, like the insects themselves, tropical. Occasionally I dragged my attention from the butterflies, constantly moving as well as brightly coloured, to a few of the flowers and fruits.
A visit to the Butterfly Farm at Stratford on Avon over the Christmas period, where I went rather wild taking pictures with a camera phone. Lots of snaps, so I’m posting them in several batches. Here’s the first.
Probably my favourite is the one with the transparent panel in its wings. By coincidence, it was the first one I got a shot at.